Many flowable products, and more particularly liquids, which are pumped up or sprayed when used, are frequently packed in plastic containers equipped with a dispenser head. Once the contents has been used, the plastic container with dispenser head is thrown away. Such containers with dispenser head are rather expensive and, furthermore, are not biodegradable or easily recyclable, so that it is desirable to find a way to be able to reuse such containers with dispenser head, both from an economical and from an environmental point-of-view, by recharging them with a disposable container holding the product to be dispensed.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,440,317 to Clark, discloses an apparatus whereby a flexible, product-containing bag is received within a two-piece housing which has an inside spring mechanism to engage and exert pressure on the bag once the two pieces of the housing are closed together. A valve mounted to the housing, engages the spout of the bag. Due to the spring mechanism which is necessary to make sure that the product is under pressure and can be sprayed out of the bag, this package is rather expensive to make.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,265,372 of Lawrence Weinberg, discloses a substantially rigid outer container which can be opened so as to receive a disposable flexible pouch containing a commodity, said container being equipped with a dispenser/cuter unit which will puncture the pouch before the product is dispensed. One of the executions (FIG. 13, 14), disclosed in this patent shows dispensing through a spray head, the free end of the suction tube attached to the spray head acting as piercing element for the disposable plastic pouch. Experience has shown that the latter execution does in fact not function very well since, after the spray head has been activated a couple of times and product has been brought up through the suction tube, the opposite main walls of the pouch tend to cling together and product gets trapped in pockets so formed inside the disposable pouch. Furthermore, when the spray head with the suction tube has to be removed from the more or less empty pouch to be pierced into the recharge pouch, there is a high risk of messiness and spilling of product left in the suction tube.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,938,706 to Cohen discloses a fluid or paste dispenser in which use is made of an outer rigid housing in which a flexible disposable product-containing bag is to be inserted. A mechanical means is provided to compress from the bottom the product contained in the disposable bag as dispensing proceeds through a spray head. Here again, the spray head is equipped with a dispensing tube, the free end of which terminates in a piercing element for puncturing the disposable bag. The mechanical means has been provided to make sure that the product continues to egress from the flexible bag and is not trapped due to clinging together of opposite walls of this bag.
In light of the above, a principal object of the present invention is to provide a pump-type dispenser package for flowable products comprising a rigid outer container and a handy disposable recharge.
It is another object of the invention to provide this pump-type dispenser package with a disposable recharge which does not need separate mechanical means to be completely emptied.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a pump-type dispenser package which incorporates means to dispense a product contained in an inner disposable recharge without any risk that said product be spilled at the time the recharge is put into service.
It is still a further object of the invention to provide a pump-type dispenser package which can be efficiently and conveniently used in all package orientations, even inverted, until the contents is virtually completely dispensed.